Banana bread with coffee powder

It's the best bread you can bake when you have over ripe bananas.

I had a bunch of homegrown nendran bananas.

I baked bread two times. One with walnuts and spices. The other one with instant coffee powder, ginger and other spices.

You should make two types of preparation before making the final folding , one wet and another dry. 

Banana bread with coffee powder 

Ingredients

1 and a 1/2 cup of all purpose flour ( I used maida)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 teaspoon of instant coffee powder 

A pinch of cinnamon powder

A pinch of nutmeg powder

1/4 teaspoon of ginger powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

4 ripe bananas

1/2 cup of sugar

2/3 cup of peanut oil/ghee

A few almonds or walnuts crushed

Method

Preheat the oven at 180 degree for 15 minutes 

Step one

Peel and cut the over ripe bananas into pieces, use a fork to mash it or use a mixer to make a puree(I did that)

Add sugar and oil/ghee, mix well, keep aside.

In a sieve add all dry ingredients, maida, salt, coffee powder, ginger powder, cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder,baking powder, baking soda.

Step two

In a large bowl add the wet ingredients and add sugar and oil/ghee and fold, in that slowly and carefully add the sieved dry ingredients, keep folding and once it's in the right consistency for bread, spread a butter paper or baking paper on the bread loaf tin, carefully spread in all the sides. 

Pour the prepared bread batter, gently spread equally and add crushed walnuts or almonds.

Place the bread loaf tin on the wire rack and bake for 45 to 50 minutes in 180 degrees temperature.

You will notice the bread starts to rise and slowly getting baked, once done you can see the sides of bread is crusty and the you can smell aroma of baked bread. 

Be patient, once baking is done, use a knife or a toothpick and test whether the bread is completely baked and the knife or toothpick comes out clean.

Cut the bread using a knife and serve with tea or coffee.

This was with walnuts and no coffee powder.

Pumpkin bread with oat flour

A lovely tasty bread baked by my daughter, and here is the recipe for those of you want to try it.

Photo and recipe by Arundhathi Narayan.

Pumpkin bread with oat flour.

Ingredients 

425g pumpkin puree 

270g rolled oats (blended and powdered) 

2 egg 

70g sugar 

3 tablespoon coconut oil 

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 

Method 

Preheat oven 180°C for 15 minutes 

First combine pumpkin puree, eggs, sugar, oil, spices and salt in a bowl until fully mixed.

Then add oat powder and baking powder and use a spatula to combine until mixed

Bake in oven for 45-60 minutes until fork/skewer/toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe courtesy: Arundhathi Narayan (my daughter)

Paal Kappa ( Tapioca in coconut milk)

A trending dish which has become popular these days. I have a bunch of freshly harvested tapioca from my farm, and today I thought of making this simple yet very delicious version of Paal Kappa.

We are going to use coconut milk for this recipe.

Ingredients

1 kg Kappa ( tapioca)

Milk from two grated coconut or 2  dabur coconut milk packet

2 tablespoons of Coconut oil

6 green chillies

4 red chillies

A few curry leaves

2 teaspoons of Jeera

Method

Wash and cut, peel the skin of Kappa, cut  into small pieces, remove the thick vein from it as you cut the Kappa. Thoroughly wash two or three times.

In a cooker or a large vessel add Kappa, salt and water to immerse the Kappa. Cook until soft and tender. In cooker keep it for two whistles.

Discard water from the boiled Kappa.

Take a big ladle and smash the tapioca. Remove any hard veins from it. 

In the same cooker or large vessel, remove all water from the base, pour coconut oil, add jeera and chopped green chillies, let it realise it's aroma, now add the red chillies.

Add the smashed tapioca and coconut milk. Gently blend the tapioca to the coconut milk, add some more water if it's very thick and mushy.

Once it starts boiling and thickness you can turn off the stove, garnish with curry leaves and serve hot. 

You can also serve this dish with chutney and other spicy gravies. Tastes good.

Freshly harvested tapioca from the farm.

Note

You can cook the Kappa in the second milk from coconut, but I have cooked it in water and skipped that step.

Molagai Podi

Molagai Podi

Ingredients 

Red chillies -30 out of which 15 spicy, and 15 non spicy (for colour)

1 cup black broken urad dal

1/2 cup chana dal

1/2 cup tuvar dal

1 cup black sesame seeds

1/2 cup pottukadalai

3-4 small pieces of heeng

1 teaspoon salt or as required 

Method

In a thick iron kadai fry red chillies till crispy. Keep aside.

In the same kadai fry chana dal until it releases aroma. Keep aside.

Follow the same procedure for tuvar dal.

Roast sesame seeds in very low flame,wait for the gentle crackling noise it makes, spread on a plate.

Gently heat pottukadalai and keep aside.

In the kadai add pieces of heeng and roast, wait for it to nicely get roasted and crispy.

Cool all the ingredients to room temperature.

In a mixer jar, add red chillies and  grind to a coarse powder. Keep aside.

In the same jar add chana dal, heeng and tuvar dal, powder it using the pulse mode first and in the next modes. Keep aside.

Now add pottukadalai and sesame seeds, powder and keep aside.

You can now add salt, red chillies powder, dal powder,sesame seeds and pottukadalai powder together and run in the mixer for 3 minutes. 

Cool the molagai Podi and store in airtight container for longer shelf life.

Notes

Make small quantity of molagai podi and store.

Dry roast all the ingredients separately. 

Idly sandwich stuffed with burnt baingan ka chutney

There are diffrent ways to make chutney and most of them have coconut as the basic ingredient.

Here I am sharing a recipe which goes well with idly, dosa, rice and roti. 

Ingredients

1 large brinjal/ baingan, burnt in direct fire, peeled and smashed

2 dry red chillies

2 green chillies

A small piece of tamarind

A small piece of ginger

A small piece of fresh turmeric

A bunch of coriander leaves

Two tablespoons of curry leaves

A small piece of heeng cake

Salt as required

2 tablespoons of black broken urad dal

1 tablespoon of chana dal

1 tablespoon of Gingly oil 

1/4 cup grated coconut 

Method 

In direct fire burn the baingan, remove the skin and smash it. Keep aside.

In a heated pan pour gingly oil, add black urad dal, chana dal and roast, heeng, add red chillies and green chillies, saute for a while, add tamarind pieces, cook further.

Now add ginger and turmeric, curry leaves, coriander leaves and mix together. Add grated coconut. Finally add salt and off the stove.

Take the mixer jar, add roasted dals and grind for a few minutes. Once it's bit coarse add the smashed brinjal.

Grind further to a chutney consistency without adding water in pulse mode. Adjust salt and serve with idly, dosa, rice and roti.

Kanji, chammanti

Kanji is made with red rice the recipe is very simple. Take a small cup of red rice, wash it several times. Keep aside for half an hour. 

In a pressure cooker, add rice and about 5 cups of water, 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook for 5 whistles. Check whether the rice is well cooked. 

Serve with the spicy chammanti.

Recipe for the spicy chammanti

5 shallots (small onions)

2 pods of garlic

2 red chillies

2 green chillies

2 non spicy chillies for the colour

A small piece of ginger cut into small pieces

A gooseberry sized tamarind

Salt as required

1 teaspoon coconut oil

Two pieces of salted mango

A pinch of heeng

Method

In a small pan, pour oil add shallots, garlic, green chillies, red chillies and ginger. Cook for a minute. Add tamarind,tear it into small pieces. Add heeng and salt. Cook for another two minutes. Off the stove, cool off the ingredients.

In a mixer jar add two pieces of salted mango, add all the ingredients and without adding water grind to a coarse paste. 

Serve with hot kanji. 

Note : Two tablespoons of coconut ( if you have it, it's optional, I have not added coconut

you can add coconut if you like to the mixer jar while grinding the ingredients. It gives a different flavour and texture to the chammanti.

Coriander and lemon soup

Coriander and lemon soup

Ingredients

A small bunch of coriander leaves, wash, trim, and cut into small pieces.

One green chilli

A quarter teaspoon of grated ginger.

A teaspoon of lemon juice.

Seasalt as required

Two cups of water. 

Quarter teaspoon of crackled peppercorns.

Method

In a pan pour water, add coriander leaves, ginger, chilli, seasalt and bring to boil. Off the stove, add the lemon juice, and crackled peppercorns. Serve hot.